[JFF] Ninja Kids!!! 忍たま乱太郎 (2011) – Japan

Within a minute of watching this film, I realised that every director can have an off-day. Takashi Miike, the acclaimed director of the 13 Assassins, Yatterman and Audition, fails miserly in his attempt at pure comedy. May be it is the light hearted nature or family orientated style that Miike is heading towards, but Ninja Kids qualify nothing more than a waste of time. In fact the film began brightly and the laughs, the sets and manga style comedic sequences are fun enough to watch and cute enough kids’ antics to make the 1st quarter works out in a promising manner. Then the moment when the kids are all send home for an early Summer holiday, the film and everything goes downhill from there. At times the film not only feels prolonged, dragged, but ultimately stale and bored. The funny moments and sets soon became far and between and the result is alienating the audience involvement, which is in essence a crucial part of any comedy. If audience is not laughing with you, at you or at whatever, then the film is simply not working. All in all, Ninja Kids is a massive disappointing effort from such a capable director. Sure some fun can be had and the class of kids are fun to watch, but it is only a manner of time before the same antics you once fall for, becomes quickly frankly annoying and eventually regrettably bored. Perhaps this film is really made for kids and as for the title, there is no misleading advertising. So maybe it is just me that is expecting Ninja Turtles, but I am just not sold on it…

P.S. This is in fact based on the popular comic book – Ninja Kids 忍たま乱太郎.